Operational business service verification system

ABSTRACT

A method and a system are described for providing operational business service verification in a telecommunication network. The method comprises the steps of: (i) receiving information which relates to transactions from a plurality of information sources, wherein the transactions are associated with one or more pre-defined applications; (ii) based upon the information received, determining whether that at least one pre-defined transaction criterion has been met; and (iii) if the at least one pre-defined transaction criterion has been met, providing verification of the legitimacy of the respective transaction that relate to that pre-defined application.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority of Israel Patent Application No.213640, filed Jun. 19, 2011, the disclosure of which is incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to methods and systems for verifyingoperational business services. In particularly, the invention may beused in environments that are adapted to allow creating of applications,apps, services, utilities, applets and the like on top of an alreadyexisting platform, such as platforms of telecommunication serviceproviders.

BACKGROUND

A telecommunications network can be of several types, including mobiletelecommunications networks and fixed telecommunications networks.Mobile telecommunication networks may include telecommunicationsnetworks hosted on networks of cellular stations and mobile telephones,pagers, radio-devices, and other infrastructure and portable deviceswhich allow a user to communicate wirelessly. Mobile telecommunicationsnetworks also include those networks hosted on satellites and portableground stations, vehicle-mounted communications gear, and handhelddevices.

Fixed telecommunications networks may include telecommunicationsnetworks hosted on public switched telephone networks (PSTN), landlines, and wired infrastructure within businesses and homes. Fixedtelecommunications networks may also include those hosted over theInternet or local internets connecting computers, network appliances,Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephones, and other devices.

Telecommunications services, which are also referred to hereinafter as“services,” may include services such as voice mail, call conferencing,presence detection, and call hunting. Services are typically provided byservice providers.

An Operations Support System (also referred to as an operational supportsystem or OSS) is a computer-based system used by telecommunicationsservice providers. The term OSS most frequently describes “networksystem” dealing with the telecom network itself, supporting processessuch as maintaining network inventory, provisioning of services,configuring network components, and managing faults. The complementaryterm a business support system, or BSS, is a newer term and typicallyrefers to “business systems” dealing with customers, supportingprocesses such as taking orders, processing bills, and collectingpayments. The two systems together are often abbreviated OSS/BSS,BSS/OSS or simply B/OSS.

Business support systems (BSS) are the components that a telephoneoperator or a cable operator or a satellite operator uses to run itsbusiness operations towards customer. BSS and OSS platforms are linkedin the need to support various end to end services. Each area has itsown data and service responsibilities.

Different subdivisions of the BSS/OSS systems are made, depending onwhether they follow the TM Forum's diagrams and terminology, industryresearch institutions or BSS/OSS vendors own view. Nevertheless ingeneral, an OSS covers at least the application areas: networkmanagement systems, service delivery, service fulfillment, including thenetwork inventory, activation and provisioning, service assurance andcustomer care.

An OSS and a BSS can run on the same computer or computers and may beintegrated with each other. Also, OSS and BSS may have separate orshared database repositories.

A BSS repository may store customer information from a service providerpoint of view, such as customer address information, customer billinginformation, products purchased by the customer, and campaigns to whicha customer has responded. A BSS repository also can include subscriptioninformation for a customer, such as information for any voice, wireless,or roaming plan, as well as number of minutes purchased per month, etc.Such information is treated as product information from a BSS point ofview, and the BSS repository also will include information as to whethera particular customer is subscribing to that product. If, for example, acustomer subscribing to a new subscription is entitled to a new phone,that information typically will be maintained in the BSS repository. ABSS repository also typically is used to maintain trouble tickets, suchas information regarding problems with service or failure to receive aform, as well as maintaining security credentials.

An OSS repository, on the other hand, is used for monitoring andadministration of the system or other OSS operations such ascharging/rating and activation provisioning. An OSS repository can alsocontain subscriber information such as information for the current andactive bill for a customer, an inventory of assets associated with acustomer, types of products or services provided to a customer, etc. Arepository at the network level might include current networkinformation for a customer, such as whether the customer is logged ontothe network, a location of the customer on the network, whether acustomer device is active, etc.

A service resource such as a Service Delivery Platform (SDP) repository.The term Service Delivery Platform (SDP) as used herein, usually refersto a set of components that provide a services' delivery architecture(such as service creation, session control and protocols) for a giventype of service. The business objective of implementing the SDP is toenable rapid development and deployment of new converged multimediaservices, from basic POTS phone services to complex audio/videoconferencing for multiplayer games (MPGs).

In telecommunications, service providers not only deal with the networksassets, platforms, and services, but must also support businessprocesses to provide services to their customers and interact with theirpartners and suppliers, as well as operational processes to monitor andadminister these assets. Tools, infrastructure, data repositories, andapplications for performing these tasks are referred to as serviceprovider business support systems (BSS) and operational support systems(OSS). BSS typically includes resources that support the businessaspects (e.g. CRM, PRM, ERP, Analytics, financial, revenue management)while OSS supports the execution of the business with aspects likemonitoring, management, and administration; resolution of trouble;billing and/or charging; provisioning; activation; fulfillment; etc.) Inany service provider, services and runtime interact with OSS and BBS.Today, OSS and BSS are often complex archaic systems designed for legacynetworks where services, hardware, and network resources consist mainlyof static components.

However, one of the problems which arise in such environments is theverification of the correctness/completeness/validity/legality oftransactions which relate to certain applications.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The disclosure may be summarized by referring to the appended claims.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and asystem for providing operational business service verification in atelecommunication network.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and asystem to verify the legitimacy of transactions that relate to apre-defined application.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and asystem to verify the legitimacy of transactions that relate to an add-onto an application platform.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a methodand a system to allow creating control measures as a new application hasbeen defined, wherein these control measures allow verifying thelegitimacy of future actions when taken that relate to this newapplication.

Other objects of the present invention will become apparent as thedescription of the invention proceeds.

According to one embodiment, there is provided a method for providingoperational business service verification in a telecommunicationnetwork, wherein the method comprises the steps of:

receiving information which relates to transactions from a plurality ofinformation sources, wherein the transactions are associated with one ormore pre-defined applications;

based upon the information received, determining whether that at leastone pre-defined transaction criterion has been met; and

if the at least one pre-defined transaction criterion has been met,providing verification of the legitimacy of the respective transactionthat relate to that pre-defined application.

The term “transaction” as used herein through the specification andclaims, is used to denote a financial transaction that should beverified. In the alternative or in addition, this term is used herein todenote determination on whether an appropriate service has been providedaccording to appropriate parameters, (e.g. if the service was providedat the appropriate Quality of Service, and/or the appropriate bandwidthwas allocated while providing the service), so that determination shouldbe verified.

The term “legitimacy of a transaction” as used herein through thespecification and claims, is used to denote correctness and/or accuracyand/or completeness and/or validity and/or legality (e.g. has theservice been provided in accordance with the terms at which the customerhad ordered the service) of transactions that relate to the one or morepre-defined applications.

The term “application” as used herein throughout the specification andclaims, is used to denote application software, also known as anapplication and/or an apps and/or services and/or utilities and/orapplets, designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Apps maybe bundled with the computer and its system software, or may bepublished separately. Application software applies the power of aparticular computing platform or system software to a particularpurpose. Some applications are available in versions for severaldifferent platforms.

In accordance with another embodiment, the application is an add-on toan application platform (e.g. Apple's platform), provided that thelatter is configured to allow the add-on application to operate on topof the application platform.

According to another embodiment, the method provided further comprises astep of invoking one or more control means upon utilizing theapplication, wherein the one or more control means trigger the methodfor the provisioning of the operational business service verification,by verifying the legitimacy of respective transactions.

In accordance with yet another embodiment, the method provided furthercomprising a step of invoking one or more control measures upon defining(e.g. upon creating, upon uploading etc.) one of the one or morepre-defined applications, wherein the control measures allow verifyingthe legitimacy of future actions that relate to the application that hasbeen defined.

According to another embodiment, the method further comprises a step ofapplying at least one additional control means configured to verifyother aspects of the transactions. Preferably, the at least oneadditional control is executed based upon a pre-determined schedule.

By still another embodiment, the information that relates totransactions may be retrieved in any one or more forms, including forexample, pull and push. Some of the information sources may pushrelevant information to a verification system operative in accordancewith the present invention, while in other cases the requiredinformation may be pulled from other systems. In addition, theinformation can be pulled and/or pushed during or after the service isprovided.

In another embodiment there is provided a system operative to provideoperational business service verification in a telecommunication networkwhich comprises: means to define an operational business service-relatedapplication, a receiver operative to receive information from aplurality of information sources which relates to transactions that areassociated with an application (e.g. application-related information), aprocessor operative to verify based on the information received that atleast one pre-defined transaction criterion is met, and if the at leastone pre-defined transaction criterion is met, to verify the legitimacyof the transactions which relate to the application which has beendefined.

According to another embodiment there is provided a computer programproduct encoding a computer program stored on a non-transitory computerreadable storage medium for executing a set of instructions by acomputer system comprising one or more computer processors, for carryingout a method that comprises:

processing information that was provided from a plurality of informationsources which relates to transactions that are associated with one ormore pre-defined applications;

based upon the information received, determining whether that at leastone pre-defined transaction criterion has been met; and

determining that the legitimacy of the respective transaction (thatrelates to that pre-defined application) is verified, if the at leastone pre-defined transaction criterion has been met.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference isnow made to the following detailed description taken in conjunction withthe accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 demonstrates an example of a process of defining the controls inaccordance with an embodiment of the method provided by the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In this disclosure, the term “comprising” is intended to have anopen-ended meaning so that when a first element is stated as comprisinga second element, the first element may also include one or more otherelements that are not necessarily identified or described herein, orrecited in the claims.

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present invention. It should be apparent, however,that the present invention may be practiced without these specificdetails.

Following are some illustrative examples that are not intended in anyway to restrict the scope of the invention, but rather to ease thereader's understanding of the disclosure.

As a first example, let us assume that a new service is created forstreaming movies where advertisements are incorporated. This new serviceincludes the following financial elements:

-   -   1. The subscriber (user) pays a fixed price of 2 USD per movie;    -   2. The advertisements' provider (AP) may provide up to 3        advertisements per movie—and pays 20 cents for each        advertisement that was displayed;    -   3. The service provider (SP) and the communication service        provider (CSP) share their revenues from this service, on the        basis of 30% to the CSP and 70% to the SP;    -   4. The CSP charges and collects the revenues from the        subscribers;    -   5. The CSP charges and collects the revenues from the AP;    -   6. The Revenue Sharing takes place only after the charges have        been billed;    -   7. If a movie was delivered to a subscriber at a low quality        (e.g., at high jitter during part of the display time), the        subscriber would get a 50% discount on the price paid; and    -   8. If the movie was interrupted due to a technical problem at        any stage, the subscriber would not be charged for that movie.        Moreover, he will get an option to see two free movies in the        future.

The list of the above financial elements is provided to the processor ofthe verification system of the present invention which parses andanalyzes the constraints included therein.

According to one embodiment, when a new application is being defined (orcreated or uploaded, etc.), the list of the above financial elements isprovided to the processor, thereby enabling the creation of the at leastone pre-defined transaction criterion, for verifying the legitimacy offuture actions that relate to this application. Based on the constraintsprovided to the processor, the latter automatically constructs therequired operational business service verification controls. During theprocess of constructing the controls, the system identifies the requireddata (information) and data sources from which that required data willbe retrieved.

In the present example, data may be received from any two or more of thefollowing information sources: a billing system, an intelligent network,a system that monitors the quality of streaming, the SP system thatdelivers the application and the AP system that delivers theadvertisements. Naturally, there could be other data sources that arecapable of providing relevant information as may be required in a systemoperating in accordance with this example.

Now, when a subscriber uses the service, the SP sends a notification tothe system which specifies the service that is being used and theidentity of the subscriber using that service. Also, the SP sends adifferent notification every time an advertisement is displayed to thesubscriber and a further type of notification when the movie ends.

The system also retrieves information from other systems such asinformation required to verify the quality of service provided, todetermine whether there were any technical problems, was the subscriberprovided with a free movie, has the subscriber been exercising his rightto get a free movie, what was the amount which the subscriber wascharged, the amount of the revenue to be shared, etc. Based on all theinformation that has been retrieved, the system verifies the following:

-   -   1. Has the subscriber been charged properly according to the        financial elements provided?    -   2. Has the SP received the correct revenue share?    -   3. Has the CSP received the correct revenue share?    -   4. Has the AP paid the correct amount?    -   5. In case that the subscriber received a “free movie”, has it        been granted to him rightfully?

Depending on the exact scenario and the exact control applied, theverification may take place under real time conditions (i.e. immediatelyupon providing the required information to the system), immediatelyafter the service ends, or long after the service has ended (e.g., whenthe billing between the SP and the CSP is carried out on a monthlybase). The at least one pre-defined transaction criterion in this casemay be for example a determination of whether the service provider hasreceived the right amount of revenues in accordance with the servicedefinitions, and if in the affirmative—the transaction (which is in thiscase a financial transaction) is verified.

In the example demonstrated above, all the Operational Business ServiceVerification controls were Revenue assurance controls. However, as willbe appreciated by those skilled in the art, the invention is not limitedto Revenue Assurance controls and any other families of controls such asFraud detection controls for example may be applied. Also, the inventionmay be implemented with or without using Revenue assurance controls, allwithout departing from the scope of the present invention.

Following is another example of carrying out an embodiment of thepresent invention.

-   1. The system processor is provided with information that relates to    a definition of transactions (financial transactions) that should be    associated with a certain application as well as all the factors    that may impact the value of these transactions;    -   1.1. The definition is provided via APIs or definition files or        GUI or any other method known in the art per se;    -   1.2. The definition may be a detailed definition, or may use        templates provided by the system, that can be used by each one        of a plurality of similar applications (e.g., a template for        ringtone download application);-   2. The system parses and inspects the defined behavior    -   2.1. The definition is approved or rejected based on various        pre-defined criteria which the system checks against the        information provided under section 1;    -   2.2. The criteria include but are not limited to:        -   2.2.1. The use of an approved billing and settlement            mechanism;        -   2.2.2. The use of an approved tariff scheme;        -   2.2.3. The availability of the required reference data;        -   2.2.4. The capability of the application to automatically            implement the required Operational Business Service            Verification controls; and        -   2.2.5. The completeness of the definition    -   2.3. The at least one pre-defined transaction criterion that        should be met may change from one application to another,        depending on factors such as the manufacturer of the        application, the nature of the application (streaming, download,        location-based), and the like.    -   2.4. If the definition is not approved then:        -   2.4.1. A denial notification is sent to the application            provider;        -   2.4.2. Notifications of the denial may be sent to other            systems, and/or recorded in databases;        -   2.4.3. Certain actions may be taken such as, but not limited            to, preventing the application from running, generating an            Alarm, generating a trouble ticket, recording in a database            that the service is not certified;-   3. If the defined behavior is approved then:    -   3.1. Based on the definitions provided, the Operational Business        Service Verification controls are constructed automatically,        this may include per control:        -   3.1.1. Identification of the data sources;        -   3.1.2. Verification of the availability of the data;        -   3.1.3. Definition of the methods that will be used to            receive the data (e.g., pull or push), and the schedule            (on-line, by batch, scheduled) for getting the information;            -   3.1.3.1. If the data transfer should be done on a                pre-defined basis, then a schedule is also defined;            -   3.1.3.2. If the data becomes available in response to                the operation of another control, then the system may                identify that other control and also may prevent                retrieving the same data multiple times;            -   3.1.3.3. A different method may be applied for different                segments of the data to be provided;        -   3.1.4. The logic for defining the operation of the control            (what could be an acceptable and what is an unacceptable            situation);        -   3.1.5. The schedule of the control is defined;        -   3.1.6. What will be the action of the controls when an            unacceptable situation is detected, such an action may be            any one or more of the following actions (but not limited            thereto):            -   3.1.6.1. Generate an Alarm;            -   3.1.6.2. Create a trouble ticket;            -   3.1.6.3. Suspend a service instance; and            -   3.1.6.4. Instruct another system to suspend or revoke a                financial transaction.    -   3.2. An approval notification is sent to the application        provider;    -   3.3. Notifications of the approval are sent to other systems,        and/or recorded in databases;-   4. The controls can be applied either in audit mode or in    operational mode:    -   4.1. In audit mode the system will receive information about        processes that has already ended and will monitor if these        processes' behaviors were correct. If a diversion from the        defined behavior of any of the processes is detected, the system        may take respective measures with respect to that process,        including but not limited to:        -   4.1.1. Generate an Alarm;        -   4.1.2. Create a trouble ticket; and        -   4.1.3. Instruct another system to suspend or revoke a            financial transaction.    -   4.2. In operational mode the system will be provided with        information during the execution of the process and if a        diversion from the defined process is detected, the system may        take respective measures, including but not limited to:        -   4.2.1. Generate an Alarm;        -   4.2.2. Create a trouble ticket;        -   4.2.3. Suspend a service instance;        -   4.2.4. Instruct another system to suspend or revoke a            financial transaction.    -   4.3. Periodically and/or on-request, the system may generate        reports per application and/or per control.    -   4.4. Periodically and/or on-request the system may generate        analysis of its finding and may issue recommendations and        observations regarding the compliance of the different        applications.

The present invention has been described using detailed descriptions ofembodiments thereof that are provided by way of example and are notintended to limit the scope of the invention in any way. The describedembodiments comprise different features, not all of which are requiredin all embodiments of the invention. Some embodiments of the presentinvention utilize only some of the features or possible combinations ofthe features. Variations of embodiments of the present invention thatare described and embodiments of the present invention comprisingdifferent combinations of features noted in the described embodimentswill occur to persons of the art. The scope of the invention is limitedonly by the following claims.

1. A method for providing operational business service verification in a telecommunication network, said method comprises the steps of: receiving information which relates to transactions from a plurality of information sources, wherein the transactions are associated with one or more pre-defined applications; based upon the information received, determining whether that at least one pre-defined transaction criterion has been met; and if the at least one pre-defined transaction criterion has been met, providing verification of the legitimacy of the respective transaction that relates to that pre-defined application.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one pre-defined application is an add-on to an application platform.
 3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of invoking one or more control means upon utilizing the application, wherein the one or more control means trigger the verification process of the operational business service verification.
 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of invoking one or more control measures upon defining an applications, wherein said control measures allow verifying the legitimacy of future actions that relate to the application that has been defined.
 5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of applying at least one additional control means configured to verify one or more aspects of the transaction other than its legitimacy.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one additional control operation is executed based upon a pre-determined schedule.
 7. A system operative to provide operational business service verification in a telecommunication network, said system comprises: means to define an operational business service-related application, a receiver operative to receive information from a plurality of information sources which relate to transactions that are associated with an application, a processor operative to verify based on the information received that at least one pre-defined transaction criterion is met, and if the at least one pre-defined transaction criterion is met, to verify the legitimacy of the transactions which relate to the application that has been defined.
 8. A computer program product encoding a computer program stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium for executing a set of instructions by a computer system comprising one or more computer processors, for carrying out a method that comprises: processing information that was provided from a plurality of information sources which relates to transactions that are associated with one or more pre-defined applications; based upon the information received, determining whether that at least one pre-defined transaction criterion has been met; and if the at least one pre-defined transaction criterion has been met, verifying the legitimacy of the respective transaction that relates to that pre-defined application. 